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fend their property and their lives
against the attacks of oppressors.
The legal battle is not one between
the state of Colorado and Lawson,
with the death of Nemo as the point
of dispute. There is no pretense that
Lawson actually shot Nemo. It is
charged that he was the nominal
leader of a large body of strikers,
some of whom are suspected of hav
ing shot Nemo during one of the
-many strike battles
Through their hired attorneys the
coal companies and the influence
back of them mean to get the last
pound of flesh from the men who
fought them to a finish in the recent
strike.
The desire is not to convict the
man who shot Nemo but the man in
command of the Ludlow tent colony.
Lawson was one of the three strike
leaders received by John D. Rocke
feller, Jr., in his office at Wall st. dur
ing the industrial relations commis
sion hearings.
The trial of the labor leader fol
lows three or four others in several
counties of the state. It comes im
mediately after the two trials neces
sary to convict Louis Zancannelli of1
killing George W. Belcher, a Baldwin
Felts detective, who "was under a
$10,000 bond on a murder charge at
the time he was shot on the main
street of this city in November, 1913.
The case of Walter Belk, another
Baldwin-Felts' detective, free under
bond on a murder charge, Was con
tinued and those of four miners dis
missed to clear the ground to reach
Lawson.
The manner in which the prosecu
tion of these cases is being pushed
shows what a great effort is being
made t6 fan the smoldering embers
of the labor war. The fact that $100,
000 of the $100,000,000 Rockefeller
foundation fund is being spent in this
state cannot prevent expression of
the grave dissatisfaction felt at the
conduct of these cases.
The first trial of Zancannelli was
before Judge Granby C. Hillyer. Hill- J
yer had just been .appointed by Gov.
Carlson to assume an additional
judgeship created by the legislature
early in its recent session. The chair
man of the senate judiciary commit
tee having this bill in charge was
Charles Hayden, the Rockefeller at
torney at Walsenburg, the county
seat of Huerfano county.
The bill was denounced by the
press as a scheme to give the Rocke
feller interests a district judge who
would go to any limit to satisfy the
demands of those who wanted to
show the world by legal results that
the Colorado coal barons were right
and the miners wrong.
Before his appointment Hillyer was
an attorney for the coal companies.
He made speeches during the cam
paign, according to affidavits' present
ed by Hawkins at Zancannelli's first
trial, denouncing the strikers as out
laws undeserving of any mercy at the
hands of the state. These affidavits,
made to show why another judge
should be called to preside at the trial,
were ignored by Judge Hillyer, who
proceeded to try the case himself.
Ruling after ruling was made
against the attorneys for the defense
which astonished even the spectators.
Yet in spite of this the jury disagreed,
voting 8 to 4for acquittal. The sec
ond trial followed at once.
The county commissioners are re
quired by law to certify 300 names as
jurors. After only 30 of these had
been exhausted it was suggested by
Northcutt, who loomed ,large for the
prosecution in this case too, that the
judge summoned an open venire from
the streets.
This was done, against the protest i
of the lawyers for the defense, and a
jury was finally selected which had
three members who were mine
guards and a fourth who was a coal
company doctor.
It was brought out in the evidence
that Zancannelli had been in the
union less than three wee"ks at i&
time Belcher was "killed. He had not .
had time to acquire hatred enough to
.-, XVUnio .iiJaaui
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